The Girls of St. Wode's Part 18

"When did I eat? I can never eat when my brain is on fire."

"Have you nothing in the room now-biscuits, or anything of that sort?"

"I have a dim sort of idea that a tin of very stale biscuits stands behind that rubbish on the top of the chest of drawers."

"Stale as they are, they will be better than nothing. You must eat one.

I shall get something better for you to-morrow. I am sure that I have been sent to this room to help you a little. Now, do take off your things, and get into bed. Try to remember that if you become seriously ill you won't be able to help the person you mean to help; you won't get your honors after all."

"Are you certain? How seriously you speak!"

"Yes, I am quite certain. A sick brain never gets anything really worth having. My mother has told me that."

"Your mother; but she must be a middle-aged woman."

"I do not see what that has to do with it; and at any rate she is only a little over forty."

"Oh, she is more than middle-aged. She belongs to the dead and gone woman, who never did anything worth speaking of in her life."

"You are vastly mistaken," said Leslie, with spirit. "You would not say that if you knew her. My mother is a journalist, and makes a very good income with her work. I don't think anyone could write a better leader than she, and as to her pars., they are quite the best the _Grapho_ ever receives."

"Does your mother write for the _Grapho_?"

"Yes, and for several other leading papers. She is on the staff of the _Daily Post_."

"You astound me. She must be a well-informed woman."

"She does know a few things," said Leslie, trying to suppress a smile.

"Now, please get into bed; for, if you are not tired, I am."

"Well, just to please you, and as it is your first night. You are a nice creature. I saw that the moment you entered the room, and I am truly sorry I am your roomfellow, for I know I shall worry you terribly. I may as well tell you frankly that annoy you I shall, for I cannot possibly help myself. If I get mathematics on the brain I always go the whole length, and that means pacing the floor and mumbling problems to myself, sometimes for hours. As to tidiness, I have known myself to fling a book from one end of the room to the other in a fit of excitement. I only trust none of my books may hit you by mistake."

"I echo that wish," said Leslie; "but, as I have got a screen, I shall put it round my bed now that you have warned me. Please get into your own bed now, for I do not mean to sleep until I see you comfortable, and I am dead tired."

Annie opened her red-brown eyes very slowly, and fixed them on Leslie's face.

"To oblige you, I'll do what you wish," she said.

She tumbled into bed, did not attempt to say her prayers, flung her head on the pillow, and closed her eyes.

"How my temples do beat," she said with a sort of a sob, "and my legs are icy up to my knees, and--"

"Drink this cold water to begin with," said Leslie. "You are under my care now, and must submit to my directions."

She brought a gla.s.s of ice-cold water, and held it to Annie's lips.

"Oh, thank you; I was so terribly thirsty!" Annie drained the gla.s.s off and returned it to her companion.

"You are good," she repeated. She flung her head down again on her pillow.

Leslie got out one of her own handkerchiefs, wrung it out of cold water, and laid it upon Annie's brow. Then kneeling down, she softly unfastened the bedclothes, and began to rub the girl's feet. She did this softly and rhythmically, as she had done often and often for Llewellyn when he was in his fits of literary despair. By slow degrees her efforts took effect; Annie's groans grew less, her eyes closed, and in half an hour she was asleep.

"Poor thing!" thought Leslie. "I shall see to her having a nice meal to-morrow evening. I shall make her give me some of her money to get the needful things with. We will have our own spirit-stove and a saucepan, and I will buy milk and cocoa. When she has taken something hot, which will be much better than cold water, and goes to bed really warm, she will sleep. I only trust she won't wake between two and four o'clock, for I am dead tired."

Remembering Annie's warning, Leslie put the screen round her bed, next tumbled in; thought that the bed with the broken spring was anything but comfortable, but then reflected that she was too tired to care. She was at St. Wode's; the dream of her life was fulfilled, and even Annie Colchester could not keep her awake.

CHAPTER XV

BELLE'S ROOM AT ST. WODE'S.

Eileen and Marjory had found their way to Belle's hall. They were standing in the attic which she had described to them so graphically.

"I cannot imagine how you managed to furnish it in this extraordinary way," began Eileen. "I have heard from one or two of the girls here that the furniture is put in by the heads of the college. Now, our rooms, for instance, are quite decently furnished."

"Too much furniture," interrupted Belle. She uttered a groan as she spoke.

"The rooms certainly possess the necessary comforts of civilized life,"

pursued Eileen, "and for my part I cannot say that I am sorry. We have no luxuries; but the furniture in the room is good and neat. We have a chest of drawers each, and proper washhand-stands of course, and snug little sofa-beds, and carpets, and curtains to the windows, and--"

"Need you quote any further from that tiresome list?" said Belle again.

She was standing by her small attic window with her back to the view.

"One thing is delightful in this room," said Eileen, running up to the window as she spoke. "You have a splendid view-much better than ours. Do step aside, Belle, and let me look out."

"If you wish to," said Belle drearily.

"Wish to! I always love scenery. Surely, Belle, you cannot think it wrong to look out at this lovely view?"

"No, not wrong exactly," said Belle; "not wrong; but I have little heart to admire anything to-day. I am disappointed, and I must own it."

"Now, what have we done to annoy you?" said Marjorie.

"Much," replied Belle. She looked fixedly from one sister to the other.

"I had hoped a great deal before you arrived; but already the keenest sense of disillusionment is mine. You are neither of you beginning your college life as I could have hoped. There are two attics on the same floor with this, which you might have got had you given me the management of your affairs. I should have gone to Miss Lauderdale and represented the case to her. I believe she would have been very glad to let them to you. The college is overfull at present, and yet no girls wish to use the attics. These attics are at present unfurnished, and the college would, doubtless, when the matter was properly represented, allow you to have them as bare as you pleased. They did so in my case. I represented that it would be a saving. I managed the thing somehow, and here I am. It is true that I dread the governors visiting my room and ordering some of those useless articles which the other girls weaken their characters by using. But you did not put the matter into my hands, your old friend; and now you are accommodated with some of the nicest rooms in college."

"Oh, never mind; don't worry any more about the furniture," said Eileen.

"It seems to me that one can waste time in trying to lead the existence of the anchorite as well as in endeavoring to surround one's self with luxuries."

"One thing, at least, we will promise you, Belle-we are not going in for any extras-no pictures nor knick-knacks for us."

"Thank Heaven!" said Belle, with a deep sigh. "Had you done so, I must have cut you."

"Don't you think that would have been rather narrow of you?" said Marjorie.

"Narrow or not, I should have felt it my duty to do it. I have my eccentricities-I own to the fact-and I will cling to them through thick and thin. What you said just now was quite right, Eileen; we will drop the subject of furniture. After all, what does it matter whether one has a chest of drawers or not, whether one has a suitable washhand-stand or not? Are these the things we live at St. Wode's for? What about the intellect, what about the development of the brain? Your brows are capable of expansion, your eyes are capable of acquiring depth, your--"